Court: Hamilton Township must allow cell tower

Monday

Oct 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM

A federal judge has ruled that Hamilton Township acted unfairly and violated federal law when it denied an operator of wireless towers the right to build a cell tower in the township and must now grant the company the permit it needs.

CHAD SMITH

A federal judge has ruled that Hamilton Township acted unfairly and violated federal law when it denied an operator of wireless towers the right to build a cell tower in the township and must now grant the company the permit it needs.

Hamilton Township must allow Global Tower Partners the special use permit it needs to build a 250-foot cell tower on a private piece of land near Pensyl Creek and Sawmill roads, Judge Richard Caputo ruled Sept. 14.

For several years, the Hamilton Township Zoning Board had battled Global Tower Partners, the largest private wireless tower operator in the U.S., over the right to build the tower.

Zoners argued that the structure, which would boost cell phone service, blighted the landscape and would sink property values.

Numerous township residents opposed the tower and celebrated the zoning board's decision in 2010 to deny the company's bid to build it.

However, according to Caputo, the zoning board did "not provide substantial evidence" to support the claim that the tower would harm property values and therefore should not have denied the company the right to build the structure.

In addition, Caputo wrote that the Hamilton Township Zoning Board violated the Telecommunications Act of 1996 when it barred Global from building the tower.

The act states that competition between communications companies must be fair and dynamic.

Since Hamilton Township already allowed two other wireless tower operators to build cell towers in the community, the judge ruled that the township's decision to bar Global from building a tower infringed upon its right to compete fairly in the telecommunications marketplace.

"The unreasonable discrimination provision (of the act) 'seeks to ensure that, once the municipality allows the first wireless provider to enter, the municipality will not unreasonably exclude subsequent providers who similarly wish to enter and create a competitive market in telecommunications services.'"

Hamilton Township's zoning officer, Bob Rehman, would not comment on the case Friday. The township is still allowed to appeal the federal court's ruling.

"I won't comment on a case that's still in litigation," he said.

The ruling is a major development in the battle between the township and Global, which is based out of Florida, and owns thousands of wireless towers around the U.S., including one on Totts Gap Road in Stroudsburg.

In 2008, the company approached residents Lloyd and Shirley Singer to lease a section of their 30-acre property for a cell tower. The Singers agreed.

Residents protested that the 250-foot tall three-legged, lattice-type tower would look ugly in Hamilton Township, which is pastoral and is characterized by sweeping fields and rustic barnyards.

Though two cell towers already existed in the township, those structures are near Route 33, which made them less offensive to township residents, according to Brett Riegel, the Stroudsburg attorney that the township hired to fight Global Tower Partners.

The zoning hearing board discussed this tower at 20 meetings, which spanned two years.

Finally in July 2010, after the zoning hearing board heard testimony from a local appraiser, who said that the tower would indeed sink property values, the township denied the company the special use permit it needed to build the tower.

However, Global Tower Partners took the case to court.

Global Tower Partners in its most recent notice of intent to build the tower said the structure would be 310 feet tall, even though the judge in his ruling said the company had the right to build a tower 250 feet tall.